Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant
Petra von Kant, a successful fashion designer based in Bremen, is quite an unpleasant person: she is arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She treats her assistant and co-designer Marlene as her slave, even though Marlene does most of the work. While meeting with her cousin Sidonie one day, Sidonie's friend Karin, who has just returned from Sydney, turns up. Petra is immediately attracted to the 23-year-old beauty and soon falls madly in love with her. They are very different though. Karin is ultimately hetero and in fact married to a man.
The film is adapted from Fassbinder's own eponymous play, also from 1972 – a play about love, loneliness and suffocating interdependence. The stage character is clearly reflected in the film: not only is the story told in four acts, but the film is also almost totally restricted to one single room – Petra's bedroom. With Hanna Schygulla as Karin.
